Once upon a time in Estonia

I love cities that make you feel like you're in a fairytale. From pretty castles to quaint streets, there are plenty of places in Europe that give you that feeling. But from all the pretty-as-a-postcard places I've been to, none felt quite as fairytale ish as Tallinn in Estonia. We'd obviously already had our big bonanza family holiday for the year in our big Costa Rican adventure back in March. But that didn't stop us booking a couple of extra short breaks on the side! With only a 2 night stay, the Estonian capital was the perfect size to make sure we had time to do everything while we were there.

One thing about family holidays is we're always going to stay somewhere fabulous since Dad has great taste in hotels. My City hotel was a perfect base for exploring and we had a gorgeous view of the Soprus cinema and surrounding fountains from our room.

Getting through passport control and the new Entry/Exit system had been an absolute nightmare so we were keen to have a super speedy turnaround and get out exploring as soon as possible! Our first impressions of the city were exactly as expected; a perfect fairytale. Even though it was super tempting to start wandering round the old town straight away, we put a pin in that for now and headed to the place we'd earmarked as our first stop...

The arty district of Telliskivi was our first stop! We'd been in a sunny European city for all of 10 minutes so naturally our first stop had to be for drinks at Tsungel, before we went on for lunch at Peatus. Both places were really cool - the first had a double decker bus converted into a bar, and the second had a train converted into a restaurant. I'm not sure if there was a reason to the transport theme but it was a really fun area! It was also a fun lunch because Dad had been attempting to thank everyone we'd met so far, in Estonian. The problem was that he's not a linguist and even though he'd looked up what 'thank you' was, he seemingly didn't realise the importance of pronunciation. It was at Peatus where the waiter pointed out that he wasn't actually saying 'thank you', he was saying 'help me'!

My categorisation of Telliskivi as the art dsitrict wasn't just because they had super creative bars. It was because it's also home to art museums, wall murals, and some crafty street art. There was even an outdoor art exhibition too! It was a really cool area to have a little wander around, and we all got into a heated debate about what this animal made from rubbish was. Apparently it was a flying squirrel, which no one would ever guess (it was cool though).

A storm was starting to brew, and the Old Town was calling our name. The perfect time to choose one of the cute oldie worldie pubs to sit and have a drink with some furry blankets!

We always take it in turns to choose restaurants when we're away and this was Aidan and Mia's night, which ended up with a lovely case of Serendipity. The place they'd originally picked turned out to be some kind of private events only restaurant, so it was shut. We started wandering towards another one they'd favourited but that one looked full and was right next door to a lovely little Ukranian restaurant called Borsch & Varenyk Toompea. The case of serendipity came from the fact that Mia's family is from Poland, in an area near the border that would've originally been Ukraine. So she got to sample a load of her home favourites, and we got to try them with her! We had a really nice selection of food and the owners were SO lovely; it was a family run business who said they'd been hiring Ukranian refugees since the war started. Definitely the kind of business you feel good about supporting!

Even though it wasn't technically my night, I couldn't help one little suggestion for drinks after dinner. Whisper Sister was a cocktail bar that I'd found online and while it did say it was a speakeasy, my experience is that these come in all shapes and sizes. Some are very obviously branded with a traditional shop front, but they just have 'speakeasy style' decor. While others lean fully into the speakeasy vibe with secret knocks, code words and memberships. This was the latter kind. Once we'd walked up and down the street where Maps was saying it should be, I finally spotted a tiny gold tile on the door that said 'Whisper Sister' with a phone number below. I think Mum and Dad would've happily given up and gone somewhere else at this point but we forced it through, Aidan called the number and we were greeted at the door and shown into the amazing bar below. I'm so glad we held out because it was fabulous! The cocktails were absolutely amazing and so inventive, and it had a really nice vibe inside. If you're in Tallinn, definitely plan a trip. Just don't forget to bring your eye for detail with you.

We'd saved it up until this point but that day was our time to explore the old town in full! Since it was a fairytale town, I'd selected a perfectly princess-y dress for the occasion, and the colours of Tallinn were popping straight away. Our first stop on the itinerary was the famous street, Katariina käik. It's a really cute cobbled road with some historic tiles and mosaics on display. A lot of Tallinns historic pieces are from the 1400s!

Even when I'm in a city, even if I'm landlocked, the water will always call to me. I'm like Moana. Lucky for me, Tallinn is nice and easy to find water because it's a coastal capital, so we walked the 10 minutes up to the sea. We opted for the brand new Kalaranna area, rather than the major port, as we figured it'd be a bit more picturesque, rather than just a loading and unloading stop for cruise ships. The whole area was really quaint and pretty and we had a little meander onto the beach. There were even people swimming there despite the fact the water was freezing - I'm going to assume they were locals! There were also a couple of nice bars and cafes in that area so we stopped for a drink pit stop with sea views.

Something else that will always call to me? A rooftop bar. As we were walking back towards the city we could see some people on top of the (horribly named) Fat Margaret tower. We headed in to investigate and ended up in a very funny exchange with the woman at the desk where I kept asking about going up to the roof and she kept telling me it's a museum and the roof is just part of the museum. After a mild showdown of smiling and blinking expectantly at each other, she said there was a cafe up there and we could get the lift up. It was actually a decently stocked bar and so we stopped for a cheeky cocktail with lovely views of the city on one side, and the park on the other.

The Fat Margaret tower is actually the start of Pikk tanav: literally meaning "long street". This famous road is home to around 14 attractions of varying historical revelance, from medieval churches to old prison cells, and the "three sisters", a trio of 14th century merchant houses which are some of the oldest in the city. It was such a pretty street to walk down with so many gorgeous buildings. I love how many pastel coloured buildings there are in Tallinn!

Once we got to the end of the street (well, almost - they weren't lying when they named it "long street"), the area opens up to what I'll nickname the 'ye olde' area. It all suddenly feels a lot more medieval, with many of the restaurants serving very traditional food and dressing their waiters in traditional clothing. Obviously though because it was Dad's turn to pick the restaurant, we were on the search for pizza. Lucky for us, Neapolitans get everywhere and we found the most amazing spot, La Pizzeria di Orm Oja. Great aperol spritz, great olives, great pizza, and a great spot in the sunshine. What could be better?

When we were originally chatting through the itinerary, Mum had proposed the making the Kohtuotsa viewing platform our first stop the day before. But then the weather had started to cloud over, and we'd all agreed that it'd be better with clear blue skies. I'm so glad we jigged it around and waited because look how stunning that view is!

The next stop was the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, with a side of beers at this gorgeous little pub en route. I love Russian orthodox style churches and this one was especially beautiful. We had a peak inside but the real beauty was on the outside with those incredible turrets!

I was actually very impressed with just how many beautiful churches and spired buildings there were in Tallinn, especially to say what a tiny city it was. So while the others went back to chill out for a bit before dinner, me and Ash had another lovely little drink stop with yet another gorgeous view.

Apparently, that night the boys had discussed the dress code beforehand! Although actually me and Mum had both got the cobalt blue memo too so maybe we're all just more in sync than we realise. This time there was no back seat driving from me on the planning front - it was my night and my choices through and through. Naturally I started us at another rooftop bar, and Arkel had some really cool cocktails. Although none more adventurous than the mysterious "rosé wine and lemonade" that Ash ordered... the waitress literally came back 3 times to check they'd definitely understood it correctly becasue they clearly couldn't fathom a stranger drink combo!

The lack of late night dining culture almost bit us in the bum once again because when we arrived at Rado, we were told they could seat us but the kitchen would close in 10 minutes so we'd need to order everything at once (and speedily). I've never seen a more decisive bunch than the 6 of us that night! I'm so glad we were able to eat there though because it was a gorgeous restaurant. Really lovely vibe and incredible food - all clearly fresh and seasonal because the menu consisted of about 4 dishes for each course and was written on a blackboard. Me and Ash shared the courgette flowers, then a duck and a steak and everything was amazing.

Then it was time for England vs Panama and where better to watch an England game than in an Irish pub in Estonia? Duh. We managed to get a big table in Kennedys with a perfect view of the screen, and even better, they had a live singer on too. An English guy! The performance was so good (special shoutout to mine and my Dad's song that he requested in this most adorable boomer way I've ever seen), then the singer said he'd be taking a break for the game. When the first half was very uneventful, he came back on at half time and continued performing once the whistle brought us back, and THAT'S when we started scoring! It was like the music was bringing us good luck or something - everyone was literally shouting for him to keep singing. It was such a fun night and we were singing and dancing all night. With Estonia 2 hours ahead of the UK, we didn't leave the bar until 2am and that's when we got to experience the amazing white nights of the Baltics in summer. Basically because you're so far north, the sun doesn't ever set far enough below the horizon for the sky to get fully dark. So you end up with this beautiful constant state of twlight all summer long. While many Baltic cities are often pinned as perfect Christmassy city breaks, I think it's definitely worth considering a Baltic summer. We had the most fabulous time and Tallinn is the perfect city to visit if you only have time to go somewhere for a long weekend. Gorgeous views, pastel colours, medieval buildings, incredible food, and as many pubs as churches. A fairytale come to life.